Research shows jobseekers still feel grim about job prospects

Research shows jobseekers still feel grim about job prospects

HR Execs out of touch with whats really important to jobseekers
57% of jobseekers think the job market has worsened in the last month with no suitable roles available. Just under a quarter of respondents have now been unemployed for more than 12 months. Online re-employment assistance provider MyWorkSearch surveyed its users and HR executive community simultaneously to see where opinions tally and diverge on current HR and redundancy issues. Of the HR execs who responded, 70% think their organisations are extremely or very supportive of employees. However, only 22% of employees agreed and 40% thought their employers were not supportive during redundancy. There is agreement between both survey groups that job finding assistance is useful. It was the second most highly rated form of support (70%) for jobseekers and was the top answer for HR execs (at 36%). There is a major divergence in views on the value of financial settlements for redundancies. It was rated the top type of support by jobseekers (88 %) in contrast to HR execs where only 17% saw it as useful to jobseekers. Although all ages are being affected by unemployment, the majority of jobseekers responding to the survey are over 40 years old and 52% are educated to graduate or post-graduate level, proving that in todays job market even qualifications and experience are no guarantee of a new job. And jobseekers job expectations are having to be lowered. The majority of jobseekers have come from full-time positions or permanent roles, but the scarcity of jobs means that many are applying for temporary roles (76%) and part-time roles (63%). Almost everyone said they would apply for a job less senior than their previous role to secure employment. However while there is much doom and gloom, some job seekers surveyed (60%) are cautiously optimistic that there will be suitable job vacancies in the next three months. In agreement with this are over half of the HR executives who think it likely their organisation will be hiring employees for new jobs in the next three months, in contrast to 34% those who thought it was not likely at all. Not hearing back after job applications was the hardest aspect of looking for a new job (75 %), followed by getting an interview (46%), financial worries (45%) and maintaining self-confidence (42%). 65% jobsearch after 6pm at night and while Wednesday was the most popular day for jobsearching, 84% said they looked for jobs on a Saturday and Sunday.